Subject: Daylan McLee: not your average hero
Daylan McLee, all that Frederick Douglass could have hoped for.
Man who spent year in jail on false charges rescues cop from burning car
By
Tamar Lapin
June 25, 2020 | 10:26pm
A Pennsylvania man who was once falsely accused of pointing a gun at a
cop recently saved an officer from a burning car, according to a
report.
Daylan McLee — who spent a year in jail awaiting trial on the bogus
charges — was at a family Father’s Day cookout in Uniontown, PA, when
he heard a loud
crash.
The brave 31-year-old ran outside and pulled Officer Jay Hanley from
the mangled patrol car as flames began to spread into the cabin,
saving the cop’s
life.
“There is value in every human life. We are all children of God and I
can’t imagine just watching anyone burn,” McLee told the Associated
Press.
“No matter what other people have done to me, or other officers, I
thought, ‘this guy deserves to make it home safely to his family.’”
The dad of two had previous run-ins with the police, including being
arrested in March 2016 outside an American Legion bar in Dunbar, PA,
where a fight
had broken out.
A Pennsylvania State Police trooper had said that McLee pointed a
weapon at him twice.
But security footage showed that McLee had actually disarmed a man at
the scene, and then quickly discarded the gun.
McLee, who is black, spent a year behind bars before a jury acquitted
him of the charges after reviewing the video, according to the AP.
He filed a lawsuit in late 2018 against four troopers for wrongful
arrest. The suit claims the officers lied in a police report about the
incident and
falsified charges against McLee after one of the troopers fired two
shots at him and hit a nearby house.
A few months ago, McLee had another encounter with police, in which he
said he ran from a porch gathering after plainclothes cops approached
with guns
drawn.
The cops did not announce they were officers, and he stopped running
and put his hands behind his head when they yelled they were police,
McLee said.
He said he was charged with fleeing and resisting arrest, and that an
officer kicked him in the face through a fence, splitting his lip, as
he was being
taken into custody.
McLee said the use of force was caught on a security camera and he
plans to fight the charges.
Still, he stressed the importance of forgiveness, saying he couldn’t
blame every police officer for bad interactions he had with any
others.
“We need to work on our humanity…,” McLee said. “You can’t base every
day of your life off of one interaction you have with one individual.”
Uniontown Police Lt. Thomas Kolencik’s voice cracked as he
told WTAE-Pittsburgh
that the department was thankful McLee was nearby when the crash happened.
“Daylan actually said, ‘I’m not going to let him die,’” Kolencik told
the TV station. “There’s just no words to describe, you know.”
Several of Officer Hanley’s relatives have thanked McLee for his
heroic act, as have other cops and even the police chief.
Officials said Hanley is recovering after undergoing surgery for a
serious injury to his leg that he sustained during the crash.
After the collision, McLee said he realized he had spoken to Hanley
maybe three weeks earlier when the officer was on patrol.
“I realized after, that I’d seen him. He speaks to people; he says
hello; he isn’t an officer that harasses anybody. He commented to me
about the heat
was coming for us,” he said.
McLee said he is trying to teach his 13-year-old son Avian not to
judge others for the color of their skin, what job they have or what
other people may
say about them.
“Some people may think I look intimidating… and I can’t hate the
trooper who shot at me for what he doesn’t know,” McLee said.
“I don’t want to be called a hero. I just want to be known as an
individual who is an upstanding man. No matter… what or where, just an
upstanding person,”
he added. “And I hope (that trooper) sees this and knows he’s forgiven.”
With Post wires
FILED UNDER
CRASHES,
PENNSYLVANIA,
POLICE,
RESCUES,
6/25/20
